Beasts of the Blade
by Psychometry
Summary: Because of her blood, Honoka is forced to participate in a government 'project' that involves... hunting Beasts? Now she trains under Matsuura Kanan to become a top class Beast hunter. Her only issue is she's keeping it a secret from her girlfriend and friends. How will she be able to balance her double life of a normal college girl and a Beast hunter in training?


**What's this? Another story, calm down. I still update everything so, I'm fine, right?**

**This is another type of take on combat Hono, but different. I'll explain more at the end of this chapter because I'm afraid of spoiling something. So, please read the end notes if you take an interest in this story.**

**Anyways, I present to you some combat Hono.**

* * *

No matter how many times I swing this katana at this stupid target dummy, I don't feel any better. None of my frustrations are magically whisked far away and my stress doesn't flow my body like a waterfall. Whoever gives advice like, "just hit something to let your frustration out," is dead wrong! I'll relent though. Perhaps, just perhaps, it might, just might, happen to be because the source of my anger comes from hitting these stupid barely human-shaped target dummies in the first place.

Why am I hitting these old, dusty, worn-out, pissingmethehelloff, human-like target dummies in the first place? I'll save you the long backstory and just give a slight introduction of myself.

My name is Kousaka Honoka, second-year college student, average grades… alright, below average grades, give me a break. Where was I? Oh, right. I have a girlfriend that's the best thing to ever happen to me! But… this… this is the worst thing to happen to me. What is _this_ you ask? _This_ is the fact that I was dragged into a fucking black van like some overrated spy movie on the way back to my apartment one day, brought to sit in front of a group of strange men and women and told that, because of something special with my blood, I would be participating in a project that the Japanese government is funding. Oh, their name? Right. Atlas. Lame, right?

This 'project' included forcibly sedating me and injecting me with who knows what the hell and telling me, "congrats, now you're out to slay some Beasts." You heard right. _Beasts_. What are Beasts, you ask?

"Come on, Honoka. If you don't put your back into it, you'll never cut through the special training dummies."

At least let me finish my exposition!

I finally stop swinging that katana and realize how weak my arms feel, how long have I been doing this anyways? A few hours? Time flew by while I was distracted remembering how much I hate being here. Maybe it's wrong, but that resentment builds in a glare which I turn to the speaker, a rather pretty girl that doesn't look much older than me. Matsuura Kanan, she introduced herself as when I first met her last month, my trainer. Training for what? Beast slaying, of course.

"I'm tired, Kanan-chan~ Let me go early today~!" The Kousaka Honoka patented way of getting out things she doesn't want to do #4: begging, a surefire way of escaping this stupid warehouse.

Kanan leans closer to me with one of those evil smirks that I thought only existed in anime and video games. "Oh~? Who exactly got here late because they insisted on practicing with their school idol group? In fact, who's late all the time because they're always practicing with their school idol group?" Dead. That tone of voice definitely means that I'm dead if I make any wrong moves. I'll just retreat my king for now.

"R-Right…" I hold up my hands defensively, hoping she doesn't whack me in the back of the head with the bokken she's holding like she's done… too many times in the last month. My poor head. Sniffle. "I just, you know. They told me to continue life as normal otherwise, right? Ahaha…"

"That included some clause like, 'as long as you make time for training,' didn't it?" I can feel myself deflating.

"It's not my fault they won't even let me tell my family! Do you know how hard it is to keep lying to all my friends!? I always tell my family that we're having some late school idol practice and I always tell my friends that I have to go home early because of some chores or some other promise. It's only a matter of time before they all find out I'm lying to them!"

"Is that so?"

"Why do you act like this has nothing to do with you, Kanan-chan!?"

"Because it doesn't? I'm just your trainer. All that matters to me is that you stay alive and keep training and improving." Kanan walks up to observe the dummy I was beating on. "When you're thinking so hard about useless stuff like that, your skill ends up lacking. Look at these shallow cuts. Just the other day I was thinking it was amazing how much you had improved in only a few weeks."

Well, yeah. Wielding a sword is easy. With whatever the hell they injected in me, my reflexes are infinitely better. I can see and hear things just… clearer than before, it's difficult to explain. But learning the way Kanan wields a sword has been easy enough.

"Sorry, sorry. I was just distracted thinking about how I'd sure love to be home enjoying some manjuu or something…" That wasn't a lie.

I can feel the murderous intent before she speaks. "Oh, you'd rather be anywhere than at Kanan-san's lessons, hm? I guess one thousand more swings should do it, right? Start!" She slams that bokken against the floor, and I won't lie, it's intimidating as hell to have somebody do that right next to you when they've already hit you with the thing before.

"Y-Yes!"

There you have it. This is my story. The story of Kousaka Honoka, the new beast hunter around the area.

* * *

**Two months later**

Honoka's eyes snapped open, her mind going from sleepy to wide awake in the span of 1 second. A blaring alarm clock that never proved to not lob a headache her way every morning. But awake she did. And in a hurry too. Why in a hurry? Pouring together all of her functioning brain cells, Honoka had set her alarm for 20 minutes later than she normally did which allotted her around 20 minutes to get to school, not counting time to get dressed and eat a quick breakfast.

Normally, that might not be an issue. After all, she could just skip breakfast and just rush to her university. But the issue… Honoka nervously glanced towards her phone before grabbing it, knowing what was awaiting her before she even looked. Sure enough, two missed calls and eleven messages from her girlfriend. Oh god, she could already feel the hellfire and brimstone raining onto her. Her morning routine went particularly quickly that morning and she dashed out her apartment with bag in one hand and cellphone in the other, hoping she would at least get a chance to explain herself before they had to meet face to face where her girlfriend would give her the longest lecture of her young adult life.

The streets of Tokyo were crowded as expected, people heading to their jobs and students like herself heading to class. Honoka jogged in place at the last crosswalk until the light finally changed and she took off, sprinting towards her campus. Her girlfriend hadn't answered any of her three phone call attempts which either meant that she was seething, that she had gone to some early club practice, or some mixture. None of the possibilities sat well with the ginger and she felt herself swallowing as she finally made it to the Liberal Arts buildings and slipped inside her classroom right before the professor walked in.

She fished around in her bag and took out the paper she had worked on the last week and noticed with a slight bit of dismay that it was crinkled around the edges. If the professor wasn't already there, she would have slammed her head into the desk, but she turned it in as it was and just sighed.

"Kousaka-kun." She turned back to face Kadoyama, the white-haired professor of her Linguistic Anthropology class. His eyes flicked from her to the paper and he just sighed. "You did this last semester too. Make sure to turn in the next one… properly."

"Yes, Sensei…"

Could the day really get any worse? She regretted asking herself that as soon as the words rolled through her river of thoughts. At the least, her morning classes when by without issue, but when it was time for lunch and she still had yet to hear from her girlfriend, she feared the worse. One more time. Just one more. She flipped through her contact.

_Sonoda Umi_

Honoka swallowed a lump in her throat only for it to settle uncomfortably in her stomach before she hit the call button. One ring… two rings… three rings…

"_Hello?_"

The sound of Umi's voice was almost enough to bring Honoka to her knees in relief but she stood straight and cleared her throat before responding in as level of a voice as she could.

"U-Umi-chan…" _Fuck, don't stutter._ "You're out of class, right? Wanna grab some lunch?" An agonizingly long pause followed and just when the ginger thought she should speak up again, she heard the voice of her girlfriend once again.

"In front of the business building." With that the line was cut off and Honoka was left to stare at her phone for a few seconds before dashing towards the business building. Luckily, she had been there a number of times to pick Umi up, so she knew exactly where it was.

As she rounded the corner, sure enough, she was there. Long blue hair flowing in the slight breeze, Small hairs stuck out here and there alerting the ginger that she had probably been up late the night before. A natural beauty. That's what she would describe her girlfriend, Sonoda Umi, as. The girl's face was stuffed in a book but when she saw Honoka approaching, he put away the book and crossed her arms.

"Umi-chan!" Honoka tried to wrap her in a hug, but Umi held out a hand to stop her.

"We're having one hell of a lecture session later, Honoka." Umi's voice pierced right through her and she shivered at the thought of what was awaiting her.

"Y-Yes…" As Honoka hung her head to sulk she felt a soft sensation on her cheek, brief but she knew exactly what it was. Her head snapped back up but Umi was already turned away from her. "Umi-chan…"

Umi started walking towards the main building. "Come on. Let's go grab lunch already, I have three afternoon classes today."

All considered, Umi didn't seem particularly angry with her after she explained that she just slept in. She was sure the bluenette already suspected that was the case, but she couldn't really blame her for getting angry since they were supposed to meet to hang out before class. Well, all's well that ends well.

"Ehehe..." Honoka rested her head on her hands, staring across the table at the bluenette and smiling dumbly. "Umi-chan~"

"D-Don't just stare at me, Honoka." Umi turned away in an attempt to hide the growing blush on her face, sipping at her drink. This was a regular occurrence between the girls. In fact, whenever Honoka was exceptionally happy about something, she would cradle her head and stare at her girlfriend happily. It was a habit of Honoka's that Umi had been trying to solve but had yet to find a solution to.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just happy to see you! We've both been so busy lately that it feels like it's been forever."

"Well, that's true. It can't be helped really. I have kyudo practice many days and you have kendo. Not to mention this semester is already quite busy with projects and papers on top of normal homework. Finding time for... just the two of us is quite difficult." Umi's face flushed as she mumbled the last part and Honoka only grinned wider.

"How about a date this Saturday then? I'll get my work done early and I don't have anything to submit by Sunday night for once. So? How about it? We can go wherever you want!" Honoka held out her arms as if to include the entire world on that list and Umi just giggled.

"I'll take you up on that offer then." As they ate, Honoka regaled her with a tale of how her teacher had given up on her turning in her papers neatly. Umi glanced at her cellphone at some point and suddenly stood up. "Ah! I forgot I'm supposed to meet with my professor before class starts. I have to go!"

"Aww. Well, it can't be helped." Honoka jumped and gathered the trash from their store-bought meals, depositing it in a nearby trashcan before following the bluenette outside. When they were outside, Honoka planted a quick kiss on Umi's cheek. "Have a great day, dear~"

"I-I told you not in public, Honoka!"

"But you did before…"

"I-I did no such thing! And now I never will!" Umi turned firmly and began walking back towards the business building.

"Umi-chan~!"

* * *

After her classes ended were the worst. Every other day she was stuck training with Kanan. No wonder she felt sleep deprived with the limited time she had to work on assignments and projects that semester. She texted Umi to let her know she would be going to "kendo practice" again that day and the girl wished her luck. Honoka snorted at the idea at the idea of doing kendo again, but it was the first excuse that came to mind and one that Umi would readily accept.

Honoka let out a deep sigh as she moved down the road in the opposite direction of her apartment. Lying to Umi was definitely the worst feeling but it wasn't like she could just come out and tell her the truth. Who knows what they would do to Umi?

Well, had they treated Honoka particularly poorly yet? She thought about it. Besides kidnapping her, forcibly injecting a suspicious drug in her, forcing her to train with a sword under a strict teacher and lately forcing her to risk her life in order to slay these "Beasts," and all of that in addition to making her lie to her friends and family about it. For some reason, Honoka suddenly felt pissed. At least they were paying her, but it wasn't like she could flaunt the money around or something without her friends questioning how she got it. And she knew how bad it would be if they began questioning her about said money. What was she supposed to say? She had a part-time job? What if they questioned further? Umi would at least. Point being it was easier for her to hide it from everybody.

Training with Kanan fell under the "kendo practice" lie category which had become her default. It was easy to explain, and it made Umi happy that she was getting some kind of exercise. Even if she wasn't actually participating in a kendo class, it was definitely a lot of exercise. Umi had even commented that, despite Honoka still eating an absurd amount of sweets, she seemed to be losing weight.

Honoka sighed. One day the cat would come out of the bag but for now… it would stay there, and she would shove it back down as many times as she needed to. The last thing she needed was for Umi or one of their other friends to worry about her anyways.

She stopped outside an apartment building separate from the one where she would invite her friends to, her 'fake' apartment as she called this one. Once inside, she went to the seventh floor and opened the door to Room 722. The inside… was, as she would expect, just as messy as she had left it. They could at least assign her a maid if they were going to make her store materials for this "job" of hers in this place. Papers and books, mostly reports on these Beasts or rules and history books that were kept from the public. And yes, she was required to read all of them. And yes, she had barely started on anything.

Maneuvering through the pile of what she commonly described to Kanan as "the homework I don't need on top of the work I already have," she grabbed a black shinai bag that was leaning against the wall and checked it. There was a certainly a shinai in there, but that was just in case she was questioned while carrying it. That being by somebody she knows. She had already been assured by those people that no authority figure would be questioning her. Honestly, that made her feel a bit like a badass at first, but once everything had sunk it, she realized it was just really really… weird. Just how much influence did those people have anyway? She shook her head and made sure the other item was in the bag. A katana, a real one, in a sleek black sheath rested against the shinai and she nodded.

"Whatever…" She mumbled and grabbed the bag, slinging it over her shoulder. She would have time to reflect on how shitty her situation was later, likely in the form of complaining to Kanan until the girl beat her over the head with her bokken.

Honoka's only hope for today was that there would be no practical training. Ever since Kanan had deemed her "ready to kill," she had slain about twenty or twenty-five Beasts, all considered "minor threats." So, to say that she was ready to dive in this world where she would be forced to kill things that would likely tear her apart in one second or less… at least Honoka wouldn't consider herself ready for that. Kanan clearly thought differently.

"Well, as it turns out…" Kanan started as soon as the ginger went through the verification to get into their usual warehouse. "I have a job today, mid-level threat. Specifically, a Class 4 threat. So, you're going to help me with it." She waved off the shocked look from Honoka. "Don't give me that. You had an assignment where you took out two Class 3 threats. One Class 4 threat should be nothing. Besides, you'll just be backing me up, so you have nothing to worry about. Kanan here will protect you."

"The last time you used this excuse to bring me along on an assignment was the first time you made me fight a Class 3 Beast alone. You need new excuses, Kanan-chan."

"Did I?" Kanan stuck out her tongue and placed a finger to her chin in mock thought. "Well regardless, you're coming with me. Hey, perk up. As soon as we kill it, your training can be over for the day. So, the faster we get rid of this thing, the faster you can go home." Always solid logic coming from Kanan. Honoka hung her head and sighed. It's not like she really had a choice anyways, so she just mumbled her agreement and followed the older girl, Kanan grabbing a similar shinai bag on her way out.

They ended up in some run-down hospital that was so out of the way from either of her apartments that Honoka dreaded the thought of walking back. It was already pitch black by the time they got there. She thought about complaining but when she glanced Kanan's way, she saw the serious look in her teacher's eyes that she rarely saw. So Honoka figured this assignment had some actual level of risk to it. She fidgeted with her shinai bag and got the katana out, bringing it close to her hip with the palm of her hand just barely hovering over the hilt, the same way Kanan had hers.

"Well, I guess it's lucky that it's in an abandoned place, huh? At least we don't have to deal with people potentially seeing." Honoka commented as they slowly made their way down one of the trashed hallways. With it being night outside, the place was completely pitch-black inside, save for a small light from a flashlight Kanan had brought along and was now holding between her arm and side.

"Huh? Didn't I tell you? We're assaulting its nest. Though it's safe to assume that it's already sensed us and is on guard."

"We're assaulting a nest!?" Honoka covered her mouth when her voice echoed through the empty halls. They both waited and listened to it fade into the distance. "Uh, um…" A low rumble started, growing louder and closer, the floor was pretty much shaking under their feet. "Kanan-chan…?"

"They're coming. Her spawn."

Honoka was surprised, very surprised, when she didn't scream immediately upon seeing them. Thousands, tens of thousands of apple-sized spiders crawling over every conceivable surface to get near them. Kanan stepped in front of her, gripping the hilt of her katana.

"Code:Leviathan, release." A click sounded from her katana as a barely noticeable, tiny metal lock disengaged. Honoka looked towards the small lock on her own katana before looking back to her teacher. "Code:Yohaulticetl, release." The distinctive click sounded against as the lock on Honoka's katana released. "Now's your chance to really impress me, Honoka. Don't forget your prayers. Everything I've taught you comes into play now." Honoka nodded and reached into her pocket, pulling out a string with a cross attached to it. The cross was just plain metal, but a clear ball was set into the centre. She put it around her neck and looked up to see a tense look on Kanan's face. "You should be wearing your rosary all the time, Honoka. But we can talk about that later." She reached into her shirt and pulled out an identical one that was around her neck, letting it rest over her shirt. "Let's go."

Kanan dashed straight towards the swarm of creatures, not batting an eye as she drew her katana ever so slightly. "I pray, Catastrophe." The clear ball on her rosary turned a dark blue, the blade of her katana took on an identical hue and she struck her sword out straight, between all the spiders that, with her sudden movement, launched themselves at her. "Whirlwind." Hundreds of the things, around her and in front of her were blown away in an instant, torn to shreds, the pieces sent flying back down the hallway. Honoka shook her head and ran up beside the girl. "I pray, Silence." Her rosary's ball turned pitch black and her katana's blade shifted to a black hue as she made it to her. She jumped in front of Kanan, into the new opening her teacher had made and looked forward at the thousands of spiders still crawling their way. She took a deep breath and held her sword up, the tip facing the floor and slammed it down. "Rupture." A high-pitched noise rang throughout the hall and thousands of the creatures simultaneously fell from the wall, unmoving.

The rest mindlessly continued to move towards them, so Kanan stepped up and put an arm in front of the ginger. "Good stuff, Honoka. But you should be able to wipe all of these out in one go. I held back to see if you would. That was pretty good though." She ruffled the girl's hair, much to Honoka's dismay. "I'll take of the rest. I pray, Falling. She turned her katana over and struck out similar to before, straight out between the mass of spiders. "Rest." A high pitched whistling sounded as if wind was blowing through a small opening, but a hell of a lot louder. Honoka had to cover her ears but she kept her eyes open, watching as all of the remaining spiders fell to the ground, dead.

"There we go. Next time we train, I'll give an especially tough lecture on facing bunches of Beasts at once." Kanan had shifted slightly back into her 'teasing Honoka' mode as the ginger called it. "Then again, these are Class 1 Beasts at most, so it's not like you would have any trouble even if you were alone. I might let you off the hook just this one time, haha."

They moved deeper into the place, only encountering small hordes the creatures which were easily disposed of. Kanan held out a hand to stop the ginger as they neared one of the operating rooms. Webbing was completely covering the doors in addition to a strange black substance that had hardened in random patterns. The floor was covered in the black stuff and when they stepped on it, it made a disgusting crunching sound before being reduced to a black powder.

Kanan made a disgusted face at the stuff but trudged through until they reached the door. "It's in there. Can you feel it?"

Honoka nodded. "Mm. But… it seems kind of… weak?"

"I think so too. For a Class 4 Beast, it feels extremely weak. But that doesn't matter, stay on guard. Always have a prayer in mind to protect yourself, just in case." After a nod from Honoka, Kanan kicked in the door.

The place was completely covered in webs and the black substance. Webs coalesced into cocoon-like structures all over the walls and the two could easily assume what was inside of them. The operating table was encased in a giant version of the cocoons, webbing attaching at both the floor and ceiling. However, unlike the others, the front was completely open, revealing the table inside. And a young woman with long beautiful silver hair that flowed around her. Only when Kanan dropped the flashlight to tighten her grip on her sword did Honoka realize that one of the lights in the room was still on somehow, giving that silver hair an almost otherworldly shine.

"Ah… you're here…" The young woman looked up, blood red eyes staring at the two. "I knew… I knew it was only a matter of time. But I thought… I thought I could keep them safe." As if her words were a catalyst, the cocoons on the walls burst open, spiders crawling forth from all of them, immediately locking onto the two invaders and heading their way. "No… my children, don't… Stay away…" Though the woman reached out and spoke to them, the spiders headed towards their targets with no hesitation.

_Children…?_ Honoka thought and glanced towards her teacher who remained stoic, so she turned back and decided it was probably best to just follow Kanan's lead.

"I pray, Calm." Honoka readied her own katana. "I pray, Sleep." They waited a few seconds, making sure that the spiders had no intention of backing down before it was too late. "Decimation." "Complete." On one side of the room, every spider was completely wiped away, leaving not even parts behind. On the other side, while the spiders themselves vanished, blood remained, but that was it, nothing solid, no indication otherwise of what had left the blood.

Kanan approached the girl and Honoka followed closely behind, still glancing around to make sure nothing else was going to come out.

"Why…? Why did you kill them? My children… I'm sorry… I'm sorry I couldn't protect you…"

"It's only natural to kill something that attacks you." Kanan said.

"Would you not attack an invader of your home!?" The woman snapped. But the anger quickly faded, and she hung her head. "You should…" She was interrupted by a coughing fit and she turned her head, coughing out a black liquid that splashed over the ground to their right, hardening as soon as it touched anything. "… just kill me."

"So that's why your presence is so weak. You're already dying. It's no wonder you weren't killed sooner." Kanan shook her head and nudged the ginger next to her. "Kill her, Honoka."

"Eh? Why me?"

"You need experience making clean cuts. So, go on." Kanan watched the ginger hesitate and narrowed her eyes. "Don't feel pity for Beast, Honoka. They kill and take from us. That's all they're good for. Even if she's dying, if another Beast comes along and consumes her, it'll grow even stronger. We have to put an end to her now."

Yes, for some reason, Honoka felt hesitant. Maybe it was the mention of her children that they had just slaughtered, maybe it was because she was so sickly. But she did hesitate. She turned her gaze from Kanan back to the woman who just looked up at her and smiled. It was kind, it really was. If she wasn't so pale and looked a little healthier, Honoka could see her being a stunning woman. Hell, she had been a bit stunned by her anyways when they first walked in.

A tightness in her chest almost held her there for a few more seconds but she took a step forward and brought her katana up. The woman made no move to attack or move, she simply continued to smile at the ginger. Honoka cringed and swallowed the lump in her throat that made her want to walk away. This was wrong. Well, it was the right thing to do, she figured, but it also felt wrong. It was too hard to describe. Something inside of her was screaming at her not to kill that woman, that it was wrong, that she should tell Kanan that there must be another way. There had to be, right?

Despite those thoughts, Honoka brought that katana down, slicing cleanly through the Beast's neck. Silence followed save for the sound of the head hitting the floor and rolling a few feet away. Honoka let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding and shuddered a bit. She looked at the head on the floor and the eyes slowly turned to look her way.

"Thank… you…"

And that was it. Honoka took a step back as the body slowly fell forward as well, hitting the ground and resting there, motionless. Of course, it was motionless, she thought. It was dead. And she had killed it. A small white light rose from body and flew straight to her rosary, it floated in front of it for a few seconds before slowly being absorbed into the ball. She sighed.

A hand on her shoulder prevented her mind from delving down into the thought of killing that woman and she looked back into big blue caring eyes.

"I'm sorry for making you do that, Honoka. I know. It's the first humanoid Beast you've killed, right? I'm sorry." Honoka just shook her head. She wasn't angry at Kanan, she was just… feeling a bit guilty. She shoved her katana into the sheath and turned to walk out the room. Kanan did the same and followed her. "Code:Leviathan, restrict. Code:Yohaulticetl, restrict." The locks clicked shut and they both shoved the swords back into their shinai bags before exiting the hospital.

The walk was in awkward silence until Honoka felt a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry… again. I knew you would have to kill them eventually, so I brought you along today. In the future, hesitating might get you killed. No matter how human-like or how innocent they seem… all Beasts are truly mad creatures that feed on humans. You'll have to kill them no matter what."

That did little to comfort Honoka, but she shook her head anyways and tried letting out her feelings with a sigh. "I'm not angry at you, Kanan-chan. I know. It would definitely hurt a lot less if I could just tell my girlfriend or friends about my stress though~" She looked up at the girl with her best sad puppy eyes but Kanan just laughed.

"Now that's one thing you definitely can't do. Sorry to break it to you." Honoka returned that laugh.

The walk was calm after the air was finally cleared around them. Kanan felt less tense and Honoka smiled most of the way, returning to her normal vibrant self.

"So, Kanan-chan. I've been meaning to ask since they never told me, but what do they do with the bodies? I get that we handle the essence of them so don't attract any other demons..." She tapped her rosary. "... but what about the actual bodies? Whenever I ask, some rude person always just tells me, 'Does it matter? Just do your job and then leave it there. We'll take care of it.'"

"Ahaha, they can be pretty rude to new people sometimes. Our rosaries are registered within Atlas's system. When we absorb the essence from slain Beasts, it confirms it in their system and they send out a cleanup crew. I'm sure they're already there by now. The bodies of Beasts have to be burned with a 'sacred oil' that only certain members of Atlas know how to make. Or that's what I've heard happens to them. The part about burning them, that is. they always tell us that they burn them, but I've heard rumors about the sacred oil floating around. And I've heard it from some fairly reliable sources so it's probably true."

Honoka nods. "Makes sense I guess. It's probably pretty hard to destroy their bodies otherwise."

Before they knew it, they were already outside Kanan's apartment complex and she waved to Honoka and headed towards the glass doors but stopped and turned around, calling out to the ginger who had already started walking away.

"Honoka." Honoka turned around and tilted her head. "Say, do you hate Atlas? Just curious. They have thrown your life out of whack because of this whole project of theirs."

Honoka thought about it but turned the question back on her. "What about you, Kanan-chan? Do you hate Atlas? You're like me, right? At some point, you were just picked up off the street because of your blood and forced to hunt Beasts. Do you hate them?"

"Hmm… Maybe I did when I first started. They made my life a living hell for a while, after all. But once I got into it, it wasn't that bad. And now I guess I kind of enjoy the job. And I enjoy teaching my hopeless little ginger." She smirked Honoka's way who snorted.

"Very funny. But I feel similar. I think, when they first did all that stuff to me, I was really pissed off. And well, maybe I'm still a little angry at some things." She shrugged. "But the only real bad part I can point out is having to lie to my friends and family. I'm not sure I really hate killing Beasts. We're protecting people after all, right? I think that's good. If I can help people because my blood is special, then I don't mind. Is that a good enough answer, Kanan-chan?"

Kanan just laughed and turned back towards the doors. "Yeah, yeah. Be careful on your way home, Honoka." With that she walked inside, leaving Honoka alone in the darkness of the night.

"Well… time to head back. Ah, Umi-chan probably called me. I didn't expect to be going on an assignment, so I've been gone way too long." She took out her phone and turned it back on. Kanan had always made her turn it off when she was in the warehouse for training, so she had turned it off without thinking about it and just forgotten to turn it back on. "Ah…"

Fifteen unread messaged from Umi. Five missed calls from Umi. Three unread messages from Yukiho, her little sister. Five unread messages from Watanabe You, a friend of hers. She would have a lot of cleaning duty to get to when she got home, not to mention the homework…

Honoka just looked into the night sky and thought about sitting there and counting the stars. But she couldn't avoid her problems forever. With a sigh, she continued on her way, scrolling through her contacts to Umi first.

"On second thought, I hate Atlas." She hit call.

* * *

**Interactions were so-so in this chapter. I'm bad at introduction chapters, what can I say?**

**READ: So, here we're continuing from what I said at the top. This is a different take on combat Hono. Although I didn't show it in this chapter, Honoka is still in the middle of her training, which I guess is kind of obvious. I want to focus more on her learning and how her style of fighting changes throughout the series. Things like "prayers" will be explained as we go along and I think it'll make for a much more interesting read.**

**I was actually going to use Maki as the main character for a bit, but decided against it. I like Honoka in this role. A lot. Probably too much since my oshimen is Mimorin/Umi.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed.**

**Till next time. Be seeing you.**


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